Mismanagement is a crucial part of the problem. But it is primarily federal forestry mismanagement as they objectively have most of the forest in California. State mismanagement is also a part but at 3% of the total forest area run by the State vs 58% of the total forest area run by the Federal, it’s an unequally shared blame. From 1991: A critic argues that the US. Forest Service, protected from congressional scrutiny by pork-barrel politics and imaginative bookkeeping, is devastating America’s national _forests through needless and unprofitable timber sales. A feasible and inexpensive policy alternative is available THE MISMANAGEMENT OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS https://andrewsforest.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/lter/pubs/pdf/pub3296.pdf

Mismanagement is a crucial part of the problem. But it is primarily federal forestry mismanagement as they objectively have most of the forest in California. State mismanagement is also a part but at 3% of the total forest area run by the State vs 58% of the total forest area run by the Federal, it’s an unequally shared blame.